Stark Warnings issued as world population hits seven billion
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Pastor Dale Morgan
Nov 1, 2011, 2:42:28 AM11/1/11
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Stark Warnings issued as world population hits seven billion
By Tim Witcher | AFP
Asia welcomes the world's first symbolic "seven billionth" baby in Manila following the UN?s prediction that the child will be born on 31 October. But celebrations are being tempered by concerns over the strain that this population explosion is putting on a fragile planet.
The world welcomed its symbolic seven billionth baby Monday amid a stark warning from UN chief Ban Ki-moon of the need to tackle inequality on a planet where almost a billion people go hungry.
"Our world is one of terrible contradictions," Ban told a press conference to mark the UN declaration that the world population has reached seven billion.
"Plenty of food, but one billion people go hungry. Lavish lifestyles for a few, but poverty for too many others," he said, highlighting famine in east Africa, unrest in Syria and Wall Street protests.
The United Nations said that by its best estimates the seven billionth baby would be born on October 31, and countries around the world have been marking the demographic milestone.
But any celebrations for parents, who were showered with gifts in some countries, was largely tempered by fears of the strain that burgeoning humanity is putting on the Earth.
"What kind of world has baby seven billion been born into? What kind of world do we want for our children in the future?" Ban asked.
He said he would take his message that world leaders need to battle inequality to the Group of 20 summit in Cannes, France this week and tell them that despite the international crisis "we cannot afford to cut loose those who are hardest hit."
"We cannot burn our way to the future -- at the cost of destroying our planet. And we have to empower women and young people. Around the world, they have taken to the streets demanding their rights, new opportunities and a voice in their future."
The Philippines was the first country to declare a seven billionth baby, a little girl named Danica May Camacho.
Weighing 2.5 kilos (five pounds, six ounces), Danica was delivered Sunday just before midnight under a blitz of media camera flashes at Manila's Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital.
"She looks so lovely," her mother, Camille Dalura, whispered as she cradled her baby girl. "I can't believe she is the world's seven billionth."
UN rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement that the seven billionth birth comes at a time of great hope amid the Arab spring uprisings in the Middle East.
She warned, however, that "she or he will also be born into a world where some people, given the chance, will trample on those rights and freedoms in the name of state security, or economic policy, or group chauvinism."
The United Nations named a Bosnian child, Adnan Mevic, as the Earth's six billionth inhabitant on October 12, 1999, when then-secretary general Kofi Annan was pictured in a Sarajevo hospital with the child in his arms.
The Mevic family is now living in poverty -- which is one reason why no one baby was being singled out for the global spotlight this time. Instead a number of births were being marked throughout the day.
In Bangladesh, authorities named another baby girl the world's seven billionth child. Weighing 2.75 kilos and named Oishee, she arrived a minute after midnight at a hospital in the capital Dhaka.
"I'm so happy. I've become the father of a baby girl at a historic moment," her father Mohsin Hossain said.
Baby Gabriel Simon, born by C-section weighing 2.35 kilos at Abuja's Gwarinpa General Hospital, was Nigeria's 167 millionth person and the country's symbolic seven billionth.
"I am not rich, but my son will be a very rich man," said his father Ebu. "His arrival has brought joy. Even in my village they will know that it is a great thing that has happened."
However, Indian Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the birth of the seven billionth child was "not a matter of joy but a great worry."
"We shouldn't be celebrating," he said Sunday in an interview with The Times of India. "For us a matter of joy will be when the population stabilizes."
India's population, the world's second biggest at 1.2 billion, is set to surpass China's by 2025, according to the US census bureau.
The world has added a billion babies -- or almost another China -- since Adnan Mevic was born in 1999. Having taken millennia to pass the one-billion mark, the world's population has now doubled in 50 years.
Mounting concern over humanity's environmental impact and fears that we may not be able to feed ourselves 100 years from now cast a cautionary tone over the buildup to Monday's milestone.
With about two babies being born every second, the figure can only rise in the decades to come -- to more than 10 billion by 2100, according to UN estimates.
Children's rights group Plan International meanwhile noted that many births go unregistered, notably in parts of Africa, where as many as two-thirds are not recorded.
Stark Warnings issued as world population hits seven billion
By Tim Witcher | AFP
Asia welcomes the world's first symbolic "seven billionth" baby in Manila following the UN?s prediction that the child will be born on 31 October. But celebrations are being tempered by concerns over the strain that this population explosion is putting on a fragile planet.
The world welcomed its symbolic seven billionth baby Monday amid a stark warning from UN chief Ban Ki-moon of the need to tackle inequality on a planet where almost a billion people go hungry.
"Our world is one of terrible contradictions," Ban told a press conference to mark the UN declaration that the world population has reached seven billion.
"Plenty of food, but one billion people go hungry. Lavish lifestyles for a few, but poverty for too many others," he said, highlighting famine in east Africa, unrest in Syria and Wall Street protests.
The United Nations said that by its best estimates the seven billionth baby would be born on October 31, and countries around the world have been marking the demographic milestone.
But any celebrations for parents, who were showered with gifts in some countries, was largely tempered by fears of the strain that burgeoning humanity is putting on the Earth.
"What kind of world has baby seven billion been born into? What kind of world do we want for our children in the future?" Ban asked.
He said he would take his message that world leaders need to battle inequality to the Group of 20 summit in Cannes, France this week and tell them that despite the international crisis "we cannot afford to cut loose those who are hardest hit."
"We cannot burn our way to the future -- at the cost of destroying our planet. And we have to empower women and young people. Around the world, they have taken to the streets demanding their rights, new opportunities and a voice in their future."
The Philippines was the first country to declare a seven billionth baby, a little girl named Danica May Camacho.
Weighing 2.5 kilos (five pounds, six ounces), Danica was delivered Sunday just before midnight under a blitz of media camera flashes at Manila's Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital.
"She looks so lovely," her mother, Camille Dalura, whispered as she cradled her baby girl. "I can't believe she is the world's seven billionth."
UN rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement that the seven billionth birth comes at a time of great hope amid the Arab spring uprisings in the Middle East.
She warned, however, that "she or he will also be born into a world where some people, given the chance, will trample on those rights and freedoms in the name of state security, or economic policy, or group chauvinism."
The United Nations named a Bosnian child, Adnan Mevic, as the Earth's six billionth inhabitant on October 12, 1999, when then-secretary general Kofi Annan was pictured in a Sarajevo hospital with the child in his arms.
The Mevic family is now living in poverty -- which is one reason why no one baby was being singled out for the global spotlight this time. Instead a number of births were being marked throughout the day.
In Bangladesh, authorities named another baby girl the world's seven billionth child. Weighing 2.75 kilos and named Oishee, she arrived a minute after midnight at a hospital in the capital Dhaka.
"I'm so happy. I've become the father of a baby girl at a historic moment," her father Mohsin Hossain said.
Baby Gabriel Simon, born by C-section weighing 2.35 kilos at Abuja's Gwarinpa General Hospital, was Nigeria's 167 millionth person and the country's symbolic seven billionth.
"I am not rich, but my son will be a very rich man," said his father Ebu. "His arrival has brought joy. Even in my village they will know that it is a great thing that has happened."
However, Indian Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the birth of the seven billionth child was "not a matter of joy but a great worry."
"We shouldn't be celebrating," he said Sunday in an interview with The Times of India. "For us a matter of joy will be when the population stabilizes."
India's population, the world's second biggest at 1.2 billion, is set to surpass China's by 2025, according to the US census bureau.
The world has added a billion babies -- or almost another China -- since Adnan Mevic was born in 1999. Having taken millennia to pass the one-billion mark, the world's population has now doubled in 50 years.
Mounting concern over humanity's environmental impact and fears that we may not be able to feed ourselves 100 years from now cast a cautionary tone over the buildup to Monday's milestone.
With about two babies being born every second, the figure can only rise in the decades to come -- to more than 10 billion by 2100, according to UN estimates.
Children's rights group Plan International meanwhile noted that many births go unregistered, notably in parts of Africa, where as many as two-thirds are not recorded.
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